This invention relates to game playing methods for gaming machines such as slot machines and video poker machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to thermal management systems for gaming machines.
There are a wide variety of devices that can comprise a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are lights, slot reels, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, bonus wheels, and button pads. These devices provide many of the features which allow a gaming machine to present a game. Some of these devices are built into the gaming machine. Often, a number of devices are grouped together in a separate box that is placed on top of the gaming machine. Devices of this type are commonly called a top box.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices including bill validators and coin acceptors to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices including key pads and button pads to determine the wager amount and initiate game play.
As technology in the gaming industry progresses, the traditional mechanically driven reel slot machines are being replaced with electronic counterparts having CRT, LCD video displays or the like. These video/electronic gaming advancements enable the operation of more complex games, which would not otherwise be possible on mechanical-driven gaming machines. For example, in addition to reel slot machines, it is now common to observe stand-alone or multiple platform video electronic games including Keno, Blackjack, Poker, Pai Gow, or slots in even the smallest gaming establishments.
Typically, video/electronic gaming machines utilize numerous internal electrical components including, for example, a power supply, a monitor, a communication board, a sound system, a printer and a CPU. During extensive use, and due to the fact that many of these game devices are always xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d even when not being played, many of the internal electrical components require thermal management to prevent premature component failure. For example, CPUs typically generate a significant amount of heat but only operate properly within a specified temperature range. Thus, most CPUs require a thermal management system of some type to prevent the CPU from overheating and failing.
Within the gaming industry, the space occupied by a gaming machine is a critical commodity. While the functionality of gaming machines has increased via the introduction of new technology, the space and volume allotted to gaming machines has not increased. Thus, within the relatively constant volume offered by the gaming machine cabinet, newer electronic gaming devices such as printers, monitors and card readers must be packaged with older gaming devices such as coin hoppers, coin acceptors, and lock boxes which are still needed by the gaming machine.
With the limited space within the gaming machine cabinet and the addition of electronic components requiring thermal management, packaging to provide both functionality and thermal management is becoming an important issue within the gaming industry. Traditionally, thermal management within gaming machine cabinets has been provided by taking advantage of natural convection. With vents near the top and the bottom of the gaming machine cabinets, internally generated hot air is convected naturally towards the top of the gaming machine where it may be expelled out the top vent. Cool air is naturally drawn into to the gaming machine through the bottom vent. When necessary, this process may be aided by fans within the gaming machine. With mostly mechanical components that tend to be fairly heat tolerant, this simple process is adequate to provide thermal management for a gaming machine.
In modern gaming machines, natural convection is still utilized as part of the gaming machine thermal management system. However, with many heat sensitive electrical components, thermal management requires careful packaging and flow path analysis to ensure that local hot spots do not develop within the gaming machine cabinet that may cause an electrical component failure. For example, an electronic board is typically mounted to the back cabinet of the gaming machine. When a local hot spot develops in the back of the cabinet near the electronic board as the result of poor air circulation, the portion of the electronic board near the hot spot may fail. To improve circulation within the gaming machine cabinet and prevent local hot spots, fans are often placed within the gaming machine cabinet. Once a packaging scheme has been developed for the components within gaming machine cabinet, the fans must be carefully located to achieve the desired circulation patterns within the gaming machine cabinet. Often, the placement of fans and the development of a packaging scheme is an iterative process. Further, space limitations typically require the fans to be small and noise limitations require the fans to be quiet.
Another problem associated with gaming machine thermal management is that internal particulates and contaminates can often be passed from one internal component to another internal component due to the common circulation of the air. For example, within the gaming machine cabinet, there is often an accumulation of coin dust and other particulates generated from the action of coins with the coin hopper. This dust often consists of metallic particles such as nickel and copper from the coins, and carbon steel from the hopper. As a result, this conductive dust complicates the cooling of internal components. More particularly, fans may circulate the coin dust from within the gaming machine and then distribute and deposit it onto the components being cooled, as well as other internal components which do not require cooling. Such deposition of these conductive particulates may compromise the operation of sensitive components within the gaming machine, and may even cause shorting of circuitry. Thus, dust management is also considered in the thermal management system developmental process.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide thermal management systems for modern electronic gaming machines which overcome the limitations associated with electronic component heat and dust sensitivity in a gaming machine cabinet with significant space and volume restrictions.
This invention addresses the needs indicated above by providing a gaming machine with a thermal management system comprised of fans, vents and a particular configuration of thermal sources (e.g. CPU, power supply, monitor) and gaming machine components (e.g. printer, coin hopper, etc.). For a given component packaging scheme with the gaming machine cabinet, the thermal management system uses natural convection and a system of fans to cool the gaming machine cabinet by pulling air over the thermal sources and directing the air towards the top of the gaming machine. The pulling action of the fans helps to maintain laminar flow within the gaming machine cabinet which reduces heat build up within the gaming machine cabinet. Additionally, the fans are orientated to prevent dust accumulation on sensitive components such as the CPU and other electronics and to minimize the noise level outside of the gaming machine.
One aspect of the present invention provides a thermal management system for a gaming machine. The thermal management system can be generally characterized as including 1) a gaming machine cabinet with a front, a back opposite the front, a first side connecting the back and the front, a second side connecting the back and the front, a top and a bottom (there may be a sub-enclosure within the main cabinet), 2) one or more vents in the gaming machine cabinet where the one or more vents allow air from outside the gaming machine to enter the main cabinet enclosure and cool the gaming machine, 3) a monitor mounted within the gaming machine and viewable to a player facing the front of the gaming machine and allows a player to play a game on the gaming machine, 4) a power supply box connected to a motherboard mounted on the back of the gaming machine cabinet, 5) a CPU box connected to or containing the motherboard and a CPU and mounted to the cabinet via a CPU enclosure, 6) a first fan mounted to the power supply where the first fan pulls air through the power supply and thereby cools the power supply, 7) a second fan mounted to the CPU enclosure where the second fan pulls air through the CPU box and thereby cools the CPU box, and 8) a third fan mounted on the top of the gaming machine wherein the third fan pulls hot air rising from the monitor, the CPU and the power supply from the gaming machine cabinet and vents the hot air outside the gaming machine cabinet and thereby cools the gaming machine cabinet. The gaming machine may be a slant top gaming machine or upright gaming machine which provides one or more games such as a video slot game, a video poker game, video pai gow, video keno and video black jack. The fans may each pull a volume of air per unit of time within a specified range, may emit noise within a specified range and may have a diameter within a specified range. In a specific embodiment, the thermal management system may include a monitor shelf, which at least partially supports the monitor. When present, the monitor shelf defines a top side of the sub-assembly. The monitor shelf may contain one or more holes.
In preferred embodiments, the CPU box which is mounted on the CPU enclosure includes an inlet CPU box vent where the inlet CPU box vent is on a first side of the CPU box and an outlet CPU box vent where the outlet CPU box vent is on a second side of the CPU box opposite the first side of the CPU box. Typically, air is pulled into the CPU box inlet and across the CPU box to the outlet CPU box vent by the second fan. The air pulled through the CPU box cools a CPU mounted within the CPU box and prevents dust from within the main cabinet enclosure from entering the CPU box.
In preferred embodiments, air is typically drawn from outside the gaming machine cabinet through one or more of the main cabinet vents. The main cabinet vents may utilize louvered vent covers. One of the main cabinet vents may be near the inlet CPU box vent or near a power supply box inlet vent. The power supply box may additionally contain an outlet power supply vent on a second side opposite the side with the power supply box inlet vent. The first fan, which is mounted on the second side of the power supply box, pulls air into the power supply through the inlet power supply vent, through the power supply box and out the outlet power supply vent.
Another aspect of the invention provides a gaming machine where the gaming machine may be characterized as including 1) a gaming machine cabinet, 2) a monitor mounted within the gaming machine cabinet, 3) a CPU mounted near a first side of the gaming machine cabinet, 4) a power supply for the gaming machine mounted near the first side of the gaming machine cabinet, 5) a coin hopper mounted in the gaming machine cabinet, 6) a first fan mounted near the CPU and orientated to pull air over the CPU and push air toward the hopper and 7) a second fan mounted near the power supply and orientated to pull air over the power supply and toward the coin hopper. The power supply, the coin hopper and the CPU may be located below the monitor such that the orientations of the first and second fans with respect to one or more walls of the gaming machine cabinet cause air to flow upward within the gaming machine cabinet and cool the monitor.
In specific embodiments, one or more vents may be located on a first side of the gaming machine cabinet near the CPU and near the power supply. The gaming machine may include a power supply box having vents that encloses the power supply where the second fan is mounted on the power supply box. Also, the gaming machine may include a CPU enclosure having vents and supports a CPU box, which encloses the CPU where the first fan is mounted on the CPU enclosure.
Another aspect of the invention provides method of cooling a gaming machine having a monitor, a CPU and a power supply mounted in a gaming machine cabinet. The method may be characterized as including the following sequence: 1) drawing air into the gaming machine cabinet, 2) pulling air over the CPU, power supply and monitor; and 3) venting air out the top of the gaming machine cabinet. In this method, the air is drawn into the gaming machine through one or more vents on a side of the gaming machine cabinet that is near to one or both of the CPU and power supply. The air is drawn over the power supply and CPU and then upward by the monitor and then exits through the top of the gaming machine cabinet. The gaming machine may include a coin hopper that generates coin dust such that the air drawn into the cabinet directs coin dust away from the CPU.
These and other features of the present invention will be presented in more detail in the following detailed description of the invention and the associated figures.